Description

The aim of this research-oriented module teaches how one can study design ideas through building interactive prototypes.

Interactive prototyping has become one of the main tools in design research over the last few years. An ability to work in the interface of electronics and user-centered design provides designers an ability to construct and test interactive product ideas in an environment which takes theory as its starting point.

The module is aimed at two different audiences: design students who want to learn to build simple interactive prototypes to illustrate and study their ideas. For research-oriented students, the module gives skills needed in design research, and ability to illustrate their ideas with simple interactive prototypes, and an ability to develop those ideas using user-centered methods.

The module addresses various roles prototyping plays in design research, a practical exercise, and a technical module, which has a theoretical and practical part. The technical module introduces students to the basics of electronics, to microcontroller and its use, to the basics of programming necessary for building embedded systems, and to debugging. The practical exercise is research-driven: prototypes serve as design hypotheses to be studied, not ends as such.